Earlier this month, Toyota announced in a press release yet another safety accolade from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. Already boasting more vehicles rated as IIHS Top Safety Pick and Top Safety Pick+, the automaker recently earned an IIHS Good+ rating for Child Safety Seat Ease-of-Use, the highest rating possible from the institute.
The LATCH rating program was established by the IIHS in 2015 as means to encourage automakers to design LATCH (Lower Anchors and Tethers for Children) hardware that is easy to implement. Toyota took rapid action finding and implementing solutions.
“We began by going through our North American vehicles one by one, identifying the issues and prioritizing the solutions that had the biggest impact and could be implemented quickly,” said Jennifer Pelky, senior engineer at the Toyota Technical Center and a Certified Child Passenger Safety Technician. “Some of the biggest challenges we faced were balancing ease-of-use with safety regulation requirements, comfort, and aesthetics.”
Focusing on the seat itself, rather than the lower anchor wires, Toyota designers and engineers sought to make the lower anchors as easy to use as those in other vehicles with "good" ratings. According to the press release, it was found that a deeper anchor with large enough access was as easy to use as closer anchors. This open-access concept resulted in the Toyota Prius (which was in development at the time of the LATCH protocol release) receiving the IIHS's highest rating.
“As a safety engineer and a mother of two young boys, I understand that installing a child safety seat is not always the easiest task,” said Pelky. “I’m proud to have played a role in making that part of parenting a bit easier.”
